Rich Hinman - Memorial (2023) Hi-Res

Pedal steel player Rich Hinman has made quite a reputation for himself as a sideman for acts like Maren Morris, k.d. lang, Emily King, and others. With an evocative tone and a knack for emotive improvisation, Hinman's contributions to other artists' work have been both textural and structural. On his own, however, Hinman is an artist capable of far more than just a little sonic coloration here and there, and certainly not one bound by any notion of what a pedal steel guitar should sound like (or the type of music a pedal steel should be restricted to playing). Memorial is his second full-length, and it finds him working alongside producer (and Colorfield Records co-founder) Pete Min as well as the rhythm section of Mark Guiliana and David Piltch, keyboardist Benny Bock, and saxophonist Daniel Rotem. While this lineup is certainly jazz-adjacent, Memorial has as little to do with jazz as it does with the country music one would expect from Hinman's pedal steel. Instead, what this improvisation-friendly group has created is a sonic marvel; a dynamic and impressionistic sound that is dream-like in the way it manages to be both involving while completely non-specific. Drummer Guiliana does occasionally provide structure and momentum on many of these pieces but for the most part, the melodicism is implied and fleeting, with Bock, Rotem, or Hinman hinting at the idea of a tune before it dissolves into an atmospheric dialogue between the musicians. Memorial is unbound by pedal steel traditions—traditionalists would shudder at the glitchy electronics that feature in tracks like "Pool"—but the cinematic possibilities of the instrument are fully explored on moody but never somber numbers like "Sky Lounge" and "Slow Drip." While a cut like "Buddy" gets pretty close to the twang one might expect from a pedal steel aficionado, that track is immediately followed by "Dolphins" in which Hinman's guitar is overshadowed by lush electronic textures, rich keyboard lines, and twitchy drum machines.